Fans of strongly pop infused IDM should take heed of this new album from the Icelandic Skurken. Already an established musician in his own right, Skurken brings us a refreshing new recombination of all the elements of shoegazing, upbeat, daydreaming pop music in a suitably large dose.
Treated drum machine beats—intricate and groovy in its own right
Fans of strongly pop infused IDM should take heed of this new album from the Icelandic Skurken. Already an established musician in his own right, Skurken brings us a refreshing new recombination of all the elements of shoegazing, upbeat, daydreaming pop music in a suitably large dose.
Like many IDM artists, there seems to be some leak-over from everyone’s favorite Scotsmen, Boards of Canada, with that signature nostalgia-inducing tone lurking around the edges of every lead it seems, but just as you expect a day dreamy and melancholic melody to take you away, the songs often slide into a more introspective, nuanced mood than those airy summer vibes.
The percussion here is subtle on Zetorr, when present at all, treated drum machine beats—intricate and groovy in its own right but never overpowering the main melodies and drifting ambience. To me they brought back reminders of the classic 90s IDM hits from The Black Dog, B12, Plaid and others. While looking forward in many ways, there are a lot of tracks to be heard in this collection and some of them definitely call back to the classics of old. The songs “Freezer” or “Kvika” for example, could be taken directly from an unreleased Plaid album, while others like “Harri” summon to my mind classic Tangerine Dream or other 70s psychedelic techno. “Taktur-6” and “Carbonate” conjures to mind classic μ-Ziq and Plaid respectively, “Felt” brings memories of Adam Johnson and other classic Merck works, while many of the other tracks can only be identified as what, over the course of the album, you will come to know as Skurkens’ own unique style.
The overall mood of this album is one of warm, forward-looking, upbeat and sophisticated pop techno with excellent knife-sharp, crystal-clear production—and would fit nicely next to Adam Johnson’s Chigliak (also a must-hear if you are unfamiliar from 2003 on Merck) or Claro Intelecto’s Exhilirator (Delsin, 2017).
Zetorr is available on Touched Music. [Bandcamp]
